The benefits of the bike

benefits of a bicycle

space required to transport 60 people (via ciclism.ro)

Trail running

I don't really like running but I tried it. The Szasz Albert memorial race was organized last Saturday so I thought it would be interesting. For my category the race had two laps around the Zoo. The course was very hard because there were a lot of hills. The last climb was the hardest, very few people could run there, most of us just walked.

I started the race fast but at the half of the first lap my right shoulder started to hurt very much, I was lucky that the pain went away at the end of the lap. In the second lap I realized that it is very important to drink during the races, I was very thirsty, I was thinking of how nice it is to ride a bike and have water all the time... I passed a few guys and others passed me and I finished with a sprint almost catching somebody... 

It was a great experience I liked the course very much but riding bikes will remain my favorite sport :)

Flash mob - Tested on humans

Via ciclism.ro

Powerball

I wanted to write about this little ball for some time, after I read that it is good if you ride your bikes hard. From the powerball website:

For other sports such as mountain biking, motocross, climbing or rowing, the NSD Powerball goes to work on your fingers, hands, wrists, forearms and shoulders and gives them an extraordinary resilience to the rigors you face while simultaneously boosting your endurance levels - so much so it's been recently termed.

It is a great way to do some workout even in the office. It moves all the muscles in your hands, depending how are you holding it.

You van spin it up to 16732 rpm (the world record held by Akis Kritsinelis). My personal best is 1282 so I have to keep practicing :)

If you live in Romania the best place to buy the powerball is Emag (I have mine from there)

A bike on the Danube

You can see this gigantic bicycle on Danube in Budapest. The twist of the river turns the wheels which turn the pedals and the riders legs:

Via biciclistul.ro.

Spring is here!

Spring is finally here! Winter was too long...

I went for a nice ride last Sunday and the sun was so warm. The hills are getting green and I think Spring is just around the corner. Even my flower has flowers for the first time in 3 years. Here is a picture of Spring from my window:

Blogger is about to change

Blogger (the platform I use for this blog) is about to change. Here is a short video about the changes:

More pictures from my last race

I found more pictures from my last race, from Cluj. I want to thank everybody who was there with a camera and captured these moments:

accelerating after a tight corner

one of my favorite pics -SPEED

running to get rid of the cramps

my hat was bothering me

with a gel in my mouth for a whole lap

there was a lot of mud

concentrating

Clujul pedaleaza - Cluj is pedaling

Sunday I went racing to Cluj. Cluj is at about a 2 hour car ride (about 100 km) but I had a rough time getting there. The day before I changed my tires but I didn't pay attention when I bought the tubes and I got a 20 inch tube. So I had to go back to the store and change the tube. The next morning my phone didn't wake me up, it didn't ring. Next the car didn't want to start. After some help from a few taxi drivers and a lot of lost time it finally started, as I found out in the evening the battery died. My bad luck didn't stop there... I got to Cluj almost in time but I still had to hurry to get my race number. I didn't go on the first route my gps suggested so I had to go under a pole and disaster... I was kind of lucky that the driver behind me wasn't too close and that my Thule bike carrier is kind of idiot proof. The seat of the bike is a bit torn and one peace of plastic is broken so I was kind of lucky. The car stopped and I couldn't start it again so I had to run up the hill to get my number...

Before the race started I had to wait because the kid and beginner races were first. When the race started I was tired and cold. The first two laps were very hard, I was struggling to keep up and find my rhythm. I don't really enjoy these fast races. At the end of the second lap the rear wheel slipped and my left gastrocnemius contracted and it was hurting. I couldn't pedal for a while so I was running. I got back on the bike and started to find my rhythm. I was in about the 20th place at the end of lap three. Slowly I started to get back in the race and I started to have some fun to. My Nobby Nics were awesome, I had so much grip on every surface (mud and ice) that I was very happy that I bought them.

I finished the race in 15th place, I was covered in mud and I had really bad muscles cramps in my legs. After three days my legs still hurt. It was a great race, I had a lot of fun, I am happy that I was able to race although I had a lot of problems, I even won a Garmin t-shirt :D

Some pics from the race:

new tires on the bike, clean clothes on me (before the race)

race time

before the cramps

go go go

it started to snow

pushing hard

Merida rulz

Merida flags again

getting dirty

on the finish line

dirty and tired after the race

dirty after the race

muddy

going home

Stats:
    - time: 53:07
    - distance: 11,91km
    - average speed: 12,5 km/h
    - max speed 23,4 km/h

All the pics here.

New tires

As  I wrote earlier I bought new mud tires. I bought a set of Schwalbe Nobby Nic, two new tubes and a bottle of Slime. I was thinking of trying some tire sealant that helps prevent and repair flat tires and with the new tires it was time to test the green stuff. Here is what I have on my wheels right now:

It was very easy to put the sealant in the tire, just unscrew the valve and put in half a bottle. I hope this will help me run flat free for two years. In my first season of hard riding I had no flats, in the second season I had a lot of flats. This is my third season and I will ride without flats ;)

I tested this setup last Sunday in a short race so a review is coming soon you here you can find out that these tires are just great!

Making of March

Yesterday I posted the photo of March from my Cyclepassion  calendar, and after tat I found the making of video. Watch this short video preview with Liz Hatch:

New month - new pic

I turned the page on my cyclepassion calendar:

Last weekend

Saturday I gave up my detox program after three and a half days. I was feeling a bit weak (I don't think I have enough stored energy - fat - for these kind of programs) and I think I'm catching a cold. The other reason was that I went home to my parents because it was my brother's birthday and I dind'n want to miss my mothers cooking :D

It was a great experience, I saw that it is not so hard to eat less food. I am planing on doing raw vegetable and fruit days in Spring.

On Saturday I went out for a ride. I took my mtb on the road because I thought the road will be dirty. It was a bike mistake, my friend was on a road bike and it was to hard to keep up. My wide offroad tires and the gears on the bike didn't help at all. On top of this there was a strong wind to so I had a very rough time.

My average speed was only 20 km/h and it got up only when we turned back and the wind got helpfull. I got home waisted and wise. I saw that there is a huge difference on the road between a road bike and a mountain bike. Maybe if I put some better tires (race kings) on the bike it would be easier to keep up with a road bike.

Stats:
    - time: 1:43:46
    - distance: 39,01 km
    - average speed: 22,5 km/h
    - max speed 58,8 km/h